


The Curse of the Tangbeakjeon

by TheCaptainOfThisFleet



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Hurt No Comfort, I Made Myself Cry, M/M, Mild Gore, Pirates of the Caribbean AU, Pre Relationship, Set in the 19th century, a lot of people die horrible deaths, messed up timeline, this turned more gorey than intended
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-12-18 07:52:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18245573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCaptainOfThisFleet/pseuds/TheCaptainOfThisFleet
Summary: When Hyungwons crew and ship were raided by pirates searching for a cursed coin, he did not know what to do. He also did not expect to be kidnapped by them. Even less that he would end uphelpingthem find said coin.Also known as: Your local Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl AU with Hyungwon in the role of Elizabeth Swan





	The Curse of the Tangbeakjeon

Hyungwon had always been a child of luck, his father said. He had miraculously survived hongyeog[1] when he was a child and when the ship that was meant to bring him and his mother to their new home across the Yellow Sea sank, he had been the only survivor.  
He seemed to have used up his luck in his early life, he supposed. Because right now, the ship that should have brought him back to his childhood home in the Kingdom of Great Joseon[2] was being raided by pirates.  
Hyungwon himself had quickly been cast aside by both his own and the opposing crew. Since the aforementioned case of the Red Plague[1], he had grown from a sickly child to a sickly man. The way he had grown to tower over his peers hadn't helped.  
The pirate ship was a regular chuán[3], that looked Quing in Hyungwon's (admittedly untrained) eyes. It wasn't too different to their own chuán, if a bit more unkempt and not as polished. The captain had urged Hyungwon to hide and to wait out for the pirates to give up and leave, but that became harder and harder as the pirates were searching the decks.  
One of the pirates barked something at the Qing captain and held the mouth of his pistol right up to the mans face.  
"Where is it? Where is the cursed Tangbeakjeon[4]?" the pirate yelled in Korean. Why was a pirate crew after a single coin? Not even a normal one, but a cursed one too! And what confused him even more was that Tangbeakjeon had been out of use for almost two hundred years! His father still possessed a Tangbeakjeon coin that resided in a glass case in his office in Dangjin.  
The captain (who did not speak Korean, only Mandarin) side-eyed his Yanmaodao[5], but the pirate pressed his pistol against the captain's forehead even harder.  
"Don't make me shoot you."  
The man was small, smaller even then most men and didn't look more muscular than Hyungwon himself.  
The captain thought him to be not much of a danger and still grabbed for his Yanmaodao, but before he could grasp it, his head was blown off.  
"Search every damned chi[6] for that coin and then burn down the ship!" the small man yelled and stepped over the newly headless captain.

"There is no Tangbeakjeon on this chuán," Hyungwon said. He surprised both himself and the apparent pirate captain by speaking. "The Tangbeakjeon hasn't been in use for two hundred years, all you will find on this ship are mun[7] and cash[8]."  
"And how do you know that?" the captain grinned at him devilishly and Hyungwon blanked. He had never been so close to someone that could (and would) kill him in a heartbeat.  
"It... This is my..." Hyungwon stuttered and glanced at the other pirates who had stopped their search. The crew members were still alive, but laid bound and muted on the deck.  
"This ship belongs to my father. We have no such coin on board."  
The pirate captain nodded thoughtfully before lifting his pistol.  
"Why shouldn't I kill you then and go on my merry way?"  
Hyungwon stumbled back and almost fell over. "He has one, I know where he keeps it!" He hadn't wanted to blurt that out, but it was too late now. But maybe it would save their life for now. The grin became even more terrible.  
"Then we need to keep you around for a while."  
Something hit Hyungwons head and for a while, things went black.

For a moment, Hyungwon thought he had died. It was well overdue he supposed.  
But when he opened his eyes, he wasn't dead. He was still in his own body with his own hurting head.  
Next to the small bed sat two men crouched over the map. One was the pirate captain who had almost blown his head off, the other he didn't remember.  
"The sleeping princess has awoken, it seems," the captain said with a grin. A silver tooth glinted in the low light of a paper lantern. The small windows the cabin possessed were dark, with only little light filtering through the paper seals that covered them.

Hyungwon almost fell out of bed with sudden frantic energy when he remembered where he was. Pirates had kidnapped him and the only reason he was still alive was some weird coin in his father's office.  
He stumbled around the two pirates and towards the cabin door without being held up by them. When he ripped the cabin door open, a bunch of young men stumbled back, as if they had been eavesdropping.  
The light of a nearby lantern flickered over the faces of the men, momentarily giving them human features before the flesh melted right off their bones again.  
Hyunwon whipped around to flee back into the cabin and away from the demons, but when he saw the captain standing in the little moonlight that the open door provided. The flesh had rotten off his cheeks in a way Hyungwon could see his silver tooth.  
It wasn't his proudest moment, but he screamed and tumbled back out onto the deck, right into one of the rotting demons. Hyungwon screamed again and the demon screamed right back at him. Both stumbled backwards and Hyungwon fell over... something.

Hyungwon stumbled against the low railing and when something touched his legs and he jumped, he suddenly went overboard.  
His fall was stopped by a bony hand around his lower leg. When he looked up, his heart almost stopped. Around his leg, slowly sliding closer to his ankle, was a hand only consisting of bones and rotting skin, attached to a similarly rotten arm.  
Hyungwon screamed (again) and kicked out with his free leg. He hit the rotting demon beneath his chin. After his second kick, he heard a sickening crack and after the third, the head lodged off the neck.  
It flew right past him and had a similarly surprised expression as Hyungwon did.  
The now headless body didn't let go of him, but his second arm blindly grabbed for Hyungwons other leg.  
The young man was rigid with fear as another of those hellborn, rotten creatures dove off the ship. He didn't move as the headless body caught a grip on his other leg or when he was hauled back onto the ship.  
He expected death, but he was only locked into a cabin on the main deck.

Most of the time, he felt too sick from the sea to think. The small windows were sealed with thick fabrics that didn't let any light through and Hyungwon had always been prone to sea sickness if he didn't see the horizon.  
He did not scream for help. He did not try to break out. He didn't do anything but to slowly rot away in his prison. He just awaited his imminent doom.  
It took two days until the door was unlocked. A small man, more of a boy, peeked into the room. When he saw Hyungwon look at him through hooded eyes, he smiled and entered.  
The boy wore dirty baji[9] and a once colorful po[10]. It had long since faded and was of a similar colour as the bandages below. Maybe it had been blue once upon a time.  
"You are awake," the boy said and closed the door behind him. He carried two bowls, one filled with cold rice and one with water.  
"Eat. You look like you're sick."  
Hyungwon didn't say anything. This boy didn't look like the demons had in that night. His head sat firmly on his shoulders. But Hyungwon was still weary of their anger. If they were hell sent, then they would not spare him for wrong words.  
The boy set the two bowls down and left Hyungwon to it.

The boy returned later that day and every following day. Always with a bowl of water and one of rice, and soon, Hyungwon was close to trusting him. The boy's name was Jooheon, but Hyungwon didn't know why the boy told him that.  
After close to two weeks, he was allowed on deck. The chuán was far off the coast and no gust of wind rustled the sails. They were not going anywhere soon.  
Hyungwon soaked up as much sunlight on the first day as he could, followed by a wicked sunburn that made his skin peel off.  
Kihyun, the one he had thought to be captain, found this a hilarious ordeal. Demons like the crew didn't burn in the sun. He poked fun at Hyungwon for days afterwards, literally poking him at all the burned parts of his skin.  
Hyunwoo, the actual captain and the man who had been there when Hyungwon woke up, just told him not to be bothered by Kihyun. He wasn't mean spirited, but enjoyed the practical side of jokes. Hyungwon supposed Kihyun was not unlike a dokkaebi[11], a mischievous but not entirely evil spirit.

During the doldrums, Hyungwon got to know the crew better. They weren't exactly hostile towards him and as long as he kept to his assigned cabin during the hours the moon shone, he wasn't too scared of them.  
Which in itself was an odd sentiment, because he was a hostage on a pirate ship with actual, literal murderers that were also cursed to roam earth as undead creatures until they regained all the missing coins they had stolen.  
The six men who manned the ship (had it only be six men that seized his father's ship?) were a lot nicer than he had anticipated pirates to be. They weren't inherently evil and they didn't spend their time off sitting on deck and skinning helpless children.  
Jooheon almost fainted when Hyungwon had told him what he had been told about pirates. Kihyun had scoffed at him. Minhyuk had laughed so hard he doubled over.  
Hyungwon also apologized to Hoseok, the man he had accidentally beheaded. Hoseok had just smiled and shrugged, telling him that he was forgiven. Someone had used a dark, thick thread to sew his head to his neck. During daylight, Hoseok was of a broadness and muscularity Hyungwon had rarely seen anywhere before. It wasn't surprising that even a rotting version of him could have pulled Hyungwon on deck.  
Changkyun was more reserved towards Hyungwon than the rest. He kept his distance and usually hid behind Hyunwoo or Hoseok whenever Hyungwon was on deck.  
Hyungwon could see the bandages around his shoulder and chest, dark red with blood. Jooheon told him that, if they hadn't been cursed anyway, he would have been killed when they attacked Hyungwons ship.  
The only reason Changkyun became somewhat close to Hyungwon was only because a chuán had limited space and they couldn't avoid each other all the time.  
The way Changkyun wore his bloodied bandages and held his body made Hyungwon's chest hurt. He couldn't exactly tell why. Changkyun wasn't innocent and if they hadn't attacked Hyungwon's ship, they would all still be perfectly intact. And it hadn't even killed him, so what was the point about feeling guilty anyway?

When the wind picked back up, they sailed to an island and then made their way towards Joseon and the cursed coin, that would lift the curse from the crew and set them free. He wanted them to be free. They had suffered enough.  
Hoseok told him that he was so, so tired. Hyunwoo smiled at him and told him of a home Hyungwon knew ceased to exist many years ago. Minhyuk looked at him once with a sudden, terrifying sincerity and told him that death would be a salvation. They all told him in some way or another that they couldn't let this coin go, that they needed it like Hyungwon needed air to survive.  
Aside from Kihyun. Kihyun never told him anything if he wasn't forced. He only ever glanced at Hyungwon like he wanted him to drop dead. Hyungwon wasn't sure why, but he pretended like he didn't notice the way Kihyuns eyes narrowed when he talked to Hoseok.

 

\------------------

 

Soon, they reached Dangjin, the town his father had been ordered to govern. Kihyun fretted over the younger members who would remain on the chuán to make sure they had an easy escape route.  
Hyungwon led the small party through the bustling town. They got a few strange looks, but nothing Hyungwon couldn't handle. The hanbok the pirates had on their ships very luxurious compared to those of the towns people. 

Word seemingly travelled faster than their group, because when they entered the town house of Hyungwon's father, they were already expected by servants. They led them into his father's study, where he sat on a big pillow and awaited them. Behind him kneeled two subordinates of his.  
Hyungwon nudged Minhyuk and nodded towards the glass case on one of the low tables.  
"My son, is that you?" the old man asked. Hyungwon looked at him, for the first time really looked at him. He hadn't inherited much of his father, neither his brute personality nor his looks. His father looked old, kneeling like this, old and like he had spent years grieving his youth.  
Hyungwon straightened his back and squared his shoulders the way Hyunwoo had shown him. He needed to look as confident as he possibly could to pull this off without being killed.  
"Father, I have returned from Qing," he said as if his ship hadn't been set aflame by pirates. Maybe no one had survived and his father didn't even know about the attack. That would make this indefinitely easier.  
"It was reported that your ship sank not far from the coast. How, son, are you standing in front of me now, when my subordinates told me that your ship was set ablaze and that no one survived the vicious pirate attack?" The man nodded towards the two advisers of his father. Hyungwon had never seen them before.  
"Then, father, they must be lying to you, as I stand right here and you can see me with your own eyes. Who do you trust more? Them or your own eyes?"  
The moment his father narrowed his eyes, Hyungwon knew he had gone too far. He had never been confident before, he had groveled before his father for absolutely no reason all the time, and now he was accusing his confidants of lies.  
Kihyun shifted beside him. He had sensed the change in mood too.  
"Who are you, wicked spirit, for you show me my dead son with such mockery!" the man yelled and got up. The screen doors behind them slid open and Hyunwong barely dodged an attack by his fathers guards.

When push comes to shove, attacks are a thing quickly decided. If the pirate party had been human, then they would have lost immediately. But they weren't.  
Kihyun jumped a guard with a small but very sharp knife, cutting through the tendons and muscles of his throat with ease. The man's head lolled back and he collapsed.  
Hyungwon wasn't built to fight. He was built for flight. So he dived over the fallen body towards the coin that innocently sat on its desk. Before he could reach it, a weight fell on his back and clawed at his face.  
When Hoseok ripped the man (one of the advisors) off Hyungwons back, he rolled over and whipped his head around just in time to avoid blood being splattered in his face.  
He crawled between the legs of Hyunwoo and slid over blood spilled on the cherry floor towards the coin. Hyungwon smashed the glass case as the last body fell to the ground.  
When Hyungwon turned around, his eyes wandered to the dead body of his father, sliced open from his stomach up to his chin, blood and intestines spilling out. Above him stood Minhyuk slathered in blood.  
They were frozen, until Hyunwoo started ushering Minhyuk and Hyungwon out of the study. They passed Hoseok and Kihyun, who were checking if there was any back up coming. Hoseok looke like a depiction of a man-eating Gumiho[12], black hair wild and blood spilling from his lips down his chin and throat. He grinned devilishly at Hyungwon, showing off bloody teeth and glinting eyes.

 

\------------------

 

Hyungwon had thought the crew would rejoice after they attained the last coin that bound them to be undead. He had been ready to be abandoned at shore now that he wasn't of use anymore, to see them sail away and hear their cheers echo over the sea.  
When they returned to the ship(including Hyungwon), silence set upon them. He wasn't even sure how Hoseok or Minhyuk, painted in blood as they were, could have passed through the town so quietly.  
Hyungwon sensed that they didn't want him to know something, so he retreated to his cabin that had once been his prison. Maybe they just needed to wrap their heads around the thought that, after one hundred years of suffering, they would finally be able to rest.  
But even days after leaving Joseon and sailing towards the cursed island to return the coin, the eerie silence continued to linger.  
Hyungwon didn't dare to ask, and when Changkyun creeped under his blanket at night and hid away from moonlight into Hyungwons chest, he began to worry. Still, he only wrapped his arms around Changkyun and hoped that he couldn't hear Hyungwon's heart stumble in its beat.  
In these quiet hours, wrapped around Changkyun, Hyungwon thought about his father's death. Now in retrospective, his father had neither been a good father nor a good man. He had accused Hyungwon to be an actor, a fake. He had believed his advisors (who hadn't even been present when the whole thing happened) over Hyungwon. That betrayal hurt more than his dead body had. 

It was Minhyuk who finally showed mercy towards Hyungwon and pulled him aside.  
"Listen, we voted on wether we should tell you or not. And while Kihyun wants to leave you in the dark, I think you have a right to know. To make your peace," Minhyuk said and Hyungwon could feel the fear bubble in his stomach. They would leave him on an isolated island to rot. They would bind and gag him and throw him into shark infested waters. They would sell him into slavery.  
"When the curse is lifted, we won't survive, Hyungwonnie. Not all of us."  
Hyungwon stumbled backwards, the fear dissolved, making room for something worse. What did he mean? Jooheon had told him that they would return to being mortals after the curse was lifted and that they could go their merry way.  
"That's how it's supposed to work, I guess," Minhyuk said, guessing where Hyungwon's mind was going. "But when we return to being alive, our wounds remain."  
Hyungwon had to sit down. He had seen the way Minhyuks intestines had almost spilled out his body through a wide and deep gash his father had inflicted on the pirate. A normal human would have died on the spot, but Minhyuk wasn't human. Not anymore. Not yet.  
The thought settled. Minhyuk wouldn't survive the day the curse would be lifted. He would die with the first breath he would take as a human.  
Hyungwon searched for words. Consolation, horror, just anything. But the way Minhyuk looked at him told him that all words would be wasted.  
Still, Hyungwon said "You will die because of me. I... I killed you. I killed all of you". He felt the tears well up in his eyes, but he swallowed them down. He wasn't the one going towards and actively seeking death by lifting the curse that kept him alive.  
"Don't... Don't you want to live? To keep existing?"  
"This is not a life, Hyungwonnie. We don't feel the sun or the cold. We don't feel pain and we don't feel happiness. What would you do? Would you spend the rest of eternity numb, or would you rather feel the tiniest bit of pain? Even for the shortest bout of cold when you breathe for the first time in one hundred years? I'd rather breathe one last time than never again."  
With that, Minhyuk left Hyungwon to think about his words. Would he be strong enough to end his life? A life with no pain, where he didn't get sick, seemed like the better alternative. He didn't like pain, but maybe, after so many years of not feeling anything at all, he would gladly accept anything, even pain, to ease the numbness away.

When Changkyun returned that night, Hyungwon didn't say anything. He just wrapped his arms around Changkyun more firmly, willing dead skin to pick up on the warmth and safety of his embrace. He willed his growing feelings into every touch of his in hopes that Changkyun would feel them. That Changkyun would notice how much their impending demise affected Hyungwon.

 

He wasn't ready to let the crew, to let Changkyun go. But he had to. Because while he wasn't ready, they were.  
That was what he told himself over and over again as Minhyuk climbed the steps to the cursed chest, cursed coin in his hand. Changkyun had fit himself once again in Hyungwon's arms, gripping tightly onto the back of Hyungwon's coat. They didn't know if he would survive. The blast he had suffered to his shoulder was severe, but Kihyun had done everything in his power to patch him up.  
Hyungwon dreaded the final step. He couldn't even look at Minhyuks back making his way up and up and closer to the end.  
Jooheon was curled into himself and only seemed to be held together by Hyunwoo wrapped around him. They wouldn't see the light of day ever again. Tears pricked at Hyungwons eyes and spilled down his cheeks. He would cry for them, because they couldn't cry for themselves.

He heard the clink of the coin that Minhyuk dropped on top of the others and suddenly, the silent chamber was filled with noise.  
Changkyun took a shuddering breath that felt both painful and relieved against Hyungwons chest.  
Jooheon made a pained choking sound that was close to a sob.  
Minhyuk took a step forward, but his legs gave out under him and he fell down the set of stone stairs. Hyungwon knew Minhyuk was dead the second he fell to the floor in a heap and his eyes were empty. At least his death wasn't as painful as Jooheon's.  
Changkyun clawed at Hyungwons coat in pain and hiccupped. Blood started to seep through the bandages, hot against Hyungwon's chest. With every sob and pained noise, the life seeped out of Changkyun and Hyungwon knew that he wouldn't survive. He didn't let go, kept Changkyun close to his chest.  
On the other side of Minhyuks broken body, Kihyun wailed.  
"Nononono, Hoseok, please don't leave me. Please," he pleaded and Hyungwon's heart hurt for the broken man.  
"Don't forget me," whispered Changkyun against Hyungwon's neck, nothing more than shaped air. It sounded like the pain had faded away, slowly but surely as had Changkyuns life.  
Hoseok took a ragged breath, one that sounded so, so painful.  
"Forgive me for leaving you this early, Kihyunnie," Hoseok whispered and Hyungwon could only hear him because Changkyuns breath eased into nothingness and his arms fell off Hyungwons shoulders. Hyungwon still didn't let go. He prayed that Changkyun, and Minhyuk and Jooheon and Hyunwoo, were free of pain now, somewhere they could enjoy the shining sun and the pouring rain and the blowing wind.  
Kihyun pressed out a broken sob.  
"Promise me, light of my life, to shine even in the future. Find happiness and warmth and when death claims you, return home to me," Hoseok pressed a kiss to Kihyuns forehead and wiped weakly at the tears spilling from his lovers eyes, before his arm fell limply to his side and his head lolled back.  
Kihyun cried out and Hyungwon never had heard so much pain in one single sound. The man crumbled over Hoseok's body, folding into himself and into Hoseoks broad chest, violent sobs wracking his form.  
Hyungwon let a few tears spill when he slowly lowered Changkyuns cooling body on the floor. He kissed him for the first and only time, but was only met by unmoving, cold flesh. Changkyun who could have been his own light, if only they had had more time. 

But there was never enough time, even if you had a hundred years worth of it.

**Author's Note:**

> [1] Hongyeog, also known as Red Plague, was a disease documented during the Joseon Dynasty. Most likely measles  
> [2] Kingdom of Great Joseon, 1392-1897, succeeded by the Korean Empire  
> [3] Chuán is the chinese word for a junk ship  
> [4] Tangbeakjeon was a Korean coin introduced in 1866 worth 100 mun (Korean currency), but was quickly dropped due to the following inflation  
> [5] Yanmaodao was a standard military sword during the late Ming-Dynasty (1368-1644) up to the middle of the Qing-Dynasty (1644-1912)  
> [6] Chi was used as a measurment during the Joseon era; it equals an inch  
> [7] Mun was the currency during the Joseon dynasty  
> [8] Cash was the currency during the Qing Dynasty  
> [9] Baji are the traditional pants worn with a hanbok  
> [10] Po is a kind of overcoat worn over ones hanbok  
> [11] Dokkaebi are nature spirits in Korean folklore ; their western counterpart is the goblin  
> [12] Gumiho is a fox spirit that is known for eating a man's heart ; they're linked with the japanese Kitsune
> 
>  
> 
> \-----------
> 
>  
> 
> The other day I had an epiphany, which was Hyungwon as Elizabeth Swan from The Pirates of the Caribbean, so have some too.  
> And if you find something wrong about the research/setting please let me know!


End file.
